Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue Playing Circus

by Laura Lee Hope

And so it was. For Bunny, Ned and Tom landed safely on a big pile of hay, having jumped into the mow when they let go of the trapeze bars.

"How was that?" cried Bunny, laughing while Bunker and Ben played the music.

"Fine!" cried Daddy Brown.

"It's almost as good a show as the one I paid real money to see," laughed grandpa.

"What's next?" asked Jimmie Kenny's mother, who had come with her neighbor, Mrs. Smith.

"It's your turn now, Sue," whispered Bunny to his sister. "Do your act."

So Sue, and her little girl chums, sang their doll song. It was very much liked, too, and the people clapped so that the little girls had to sing it over again.

The curtain was now pulled across the stage while Ned and Tom got ready for one of the clown acts. They were dressed in queer, calico suits, almost like those worn by real clowns in a circus, and the boys had whitened their faces with chalk, and stuck on red rose leaves to make red dots.

Ned came out in front, with Tom in a wheelbarrow, for they had decided this between themselves. Ned wheeled Tom about, at the same time singing a funny song, and then, out from behind a barrel, rushed Jimmie Kenny. Jimmie had a pail, and he began crying:

"Fire! Fire! Fire!"